trojan New AOL and Housecall - coincidence?

2292karenr · Jun 17, 2007

I'm running Mcafee av on my Dell pc, and about once a month I run a Trend Housecall scan - tonight on both occasions I have tried it, about halfway through the scan I get a warning from Mcafee saying a trojan "new aol" has been detected and that I should quarantine/remove it. It then comes up that I must restart my pc. Everything's ok after that, but why has this happened twice in the middle of Housecall Scan? It hasn't happened before on a scan or any other time today and i've had my pc on all day. Any ideas anyone???
Cheers, Karen

chaslang · Jun 18, 2007

It could just be a false positive from McAfee. It could just be picking up on something that HouseCall is doing/accessing during the scan and it could be thinking it is a malware action. This is one of the many reasons why installing multiple antivirus applications is a no no. And even in the case of online scans or even other antispyware scans, activities during scanning and removal can be viewed as malware.

Without seeing a proper report of exactly what is being detected and where it is being deleted, we cannot really say much more. You could just try running a full system scan with McAfee (without running HouseCall) and see if anything is detected.

2292karenr · Jun 18, 2007

Thanks kindly for your fast reply chaslang, I won't bother with housecall anymore, I'll just stick to Mcafee, unless anyone gives me any reasons not to - I've heard it criticised on other forums....
Thanks again, Karen

:wave

chaslang · Jun 18, 2007

You're welcome. But which program was it that you were referring to that was being criticised?

2292karenr · Jun 19, 2007

Hi again, it was Mcafee that was criticised (not on MajorGeeks though). A couple of the people on a forum said it was - quote - c**p, and didn't pick up anything. The general consensus on the thread was that NOD32 was the best.
I personally have not had any issues (apart from below) with Mcafee so far, and I would like to keep it as I like the Site Advisor aspect of it.
Apart from that one forum - which I honestly can't remember where I found it , it was about 6 months ago - I've heard nothing else negative about Mcafee.
It would be nice to hear your opinion.

thanks again, Karen

chaslang · Jun 19, 2007

McAfee is a pretty good program however there are many things that many people (especially in the malware removal community) don't like about it.

If you have just the antivirus program only, you are better off.

If you have the full blown internet security suite package, it is a massive resource hog like all other internet security suites.

detection rates are okay but like many antivirus programs it does not find many of the malware baddies that exist today and often does not fix some of the ones that it does find.

would I buy it? No! Since there are free alternatives that are just as good if not better and they are not so resource hungry.

In the end, the decision rests on you. If you like it and don't mind how much it slows down your PC, and also don't mind paying for it to keep it up to date then you should keep it while you are happy with it.

2292karenr · Jun 19, 2007

Thanks chaslang, I will keep it till it expires in December, then I will check out the freebies on this site. The only time I feel the computer is unduly slow is on startup - mcafee does seem to take an age.
I guess I was naive to think that because you actually paid for av software it was better! Do you know if there is a free equivalent to Mcafee site advisor though? And if not, would site advisor run happily on its own with another av? I'm guessing yes as it's a separate, non av program, but you never know....

Thanks for all your help and prompt replies,
Time for geek sleep!
Karen

:zzz

chaslang · Jun 19, 2007

2292karenr said: ↑

Do you know if there is a free equivalent to Mcafee site advisor though? And if not, would site advisor run happily on its own with another av? I'm guessing yes as it's a separate, non av program
Click to expand...

I believe Site Advisor can run on its own but you would still have to pay fo updates I would assume.

You would be better off checking in the Software Forum for other alternatives but the below is one that I remember. Not sure how good it is since I don't use any of these program (I don't find them necesary or to be that accurate).

http://www.websecurityguard.com/

chaslang · Jun 20, 2007

Note there is also a free version of SiteAdvisor I forgot about:

http://www.siteadvisor.com/download/ie.html

And also there is this other free tool: LinkScanner See Lite version.

2292karenr · Jun 20, 2007

Thanks for the info chaslang. So glad I found this website!
I'll try not to bother you again for a while!
All the best, Karen

chaslang · Jun 20, 2007

You're welcome. Make sure you check out the below link and surf safely.

How to Protect yourself from malware!

2292karenr · Jun 21, 2007

Hi chaslang - just a quickie - I read through the "protect yourself from malware link" and downloaded the "a squared" free edition. It found 4 trojans on my pc and a dialer on my laptop! Mcafee hadn't picked them up, so just to say a big thanks for pointing me in that direction!
Keep up the good work Geekmeister!
Regards, Karen

chaslang · Jun 21, 2007

You're welcome.

Log in or Sign up

trojan New AOL and Housecall - coincidence?

2292karenr Private E-2

chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

2292karenr Private E-2

chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

2292karenr Private E-2

chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

2292karenr Private E-2

chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

2292karenr Private E-2

chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

2292karenr Private E-2

chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member